Special Sundays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Sure love you :) :) I hope you have a super good
day, hope the Rangers win, you get your favorite Lasagna, and all that
good stuff. Got your letter today, thanks so much. Sure miss you. I
love you dad!

Mom, your letters never cease to CRACK ME UP. I can't wait to hang out
and laugh with you again :)

Marisa Dietz is a married woman!! My goodness, what a beautiful little
bride she is :) Those pictures from Tabes and the letter from you mom,
I was waterworks this morning. What a happy day :) sure love my best
friends!! So happy for you and colt ris!!



This week was so stellar!!!

We had SEVEN TIMES the number of lessons this week then were here the
week before we got here, and we didn't even do missionary work Monday
or Tuesday cause we were helping president. We are being so very
blessed with miracles!!

Where to begin?! I usually bring my journal so I can remember. what to
write about... Yikes I forgot it, hope I can do this week justice :)
mo

First off, PLEASE tell me you have seen the Because of Him video?! If
not, quit reading this email and watch it. I promise it's better :).
Ha, but seriously, that video has been the best teaching and finding
tool. It is so so so good. And so powerful. Everyone has been posting
it all over FB. It is so good!!

mormon.org/BecauseofHim



Well most of the magic happened Sunday we will start there.

Cutest thing- on the way into church I see Jeremy Catmull, one of my
buds from the Odessa ward. He yells " ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It's sister
Burton!!" He comes and says, don't tell my mom, I'm not supposed hug
missionaries anymore since I'm 12 now, but I'm gonna give you a huge
hug anyways ;) too cute!! Love that boy and that family.

I spoke on Sunday. Yikes- still not my favorite thing to do but that's
okay. It was neat to be able to speak on Easter though, helped me
focus more on the real meaning and share that with others. Anyways....

I don't know if I've told you about Jen. She's a little older than me,
married, has a super cute little boy who is 1. Hubby was baptized at
8, doesn't sound like he was ever super active. She came to church for
the first time on Sunday. She told Sis Bailey that her and her husband
had been talking and they both said they want to raise their little
one in the Mormon church!!! AH!!!! I almost died out of happiness. I
love her so much.

Then Ethan. Ethan is 12. We have been teaching him for a while now. He
lives with his dad who is less active. Ethan is the sweetest boy I've
ever met in my life. He ,always asks us when the soonest time is that
we can come back and teach him. He is so eager to learn. Too cute :)
he came to church all dressed up in a new suit :) our last lesson we
talked about the priesthood, he lit up like a Christmas tree when we
told him he would be able to receive the priesthood and pass the
sacrament now that he's 12. Our WML said that Ethan was watching the
deacons like a hawk yesterday... Made me cry. He's such a sweet boy.

The WHOLE family came to church. The ward's!!! Dad, mom and all three
of the girls. I LOST IT up on the stand. I was so so so stinking
happy. They were waving like crazy, so happy to be at church. Man I
love those girls. Cant wait for that fam to be sealed.

I saw Chico Hunt from Odessa too. He is the man. I almost cried when
he was talking to me about their fam, they are doing SO good. The
girls are memorizing the articles of faith he told me:) I've gotta
find out when they're going to the temple... I would die to come back
for that. Love em.

We are sister training leaders now, so lots of exchanges to come :)
which I'm very excited about. I love getting to know other sisters and
learning from them. It will be fun!

Grandma Jocko: thanks so much for the Easter card! I loved it!! :) do
you remember a few Fourth of July's ago when we had the "Burton
Olympics?!" Well we are in charge of a zone pday, and we want to have
missionary Olympics.. Haha could you (or anyone else reading this too
who has fun game ideas) send me those  games we played soon... Really
soon :)?? All I can remember is the Cheeto and shaving cream one.
Thank you TONS!!

Jacob and Blake/ anyone interested :) I am re-going through and
studying Preach My Gospel... And I would love it if you wanted to
study with/ tell me the things you learn from it. I wish I would've
been into it more before I came out, and it would help you two prepare
to be even more awesome missionaries now and in a couple years :)
love you two!!


Some things I LOVED this week from studies:


Ether 12:27
Just the other day I was talking to sister b about how the longer I'm
on my mission, the more I see how many things I need to work on and
how imperfect I am. After I read that, I think it's a good thing :)
ha. As we come closer to Christ, we realize how imperfect we are and
how much we need His help. I am definitely learning that. Yay for
daily repentance :)

Sis B shared this quote with me from CS Lewis that I love now that
kinda goes along:
" No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation
means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation
know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the
German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the
strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A
man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know
what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in
one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered
life by always giving in."



This quote I used in my talk, I can't get through it w/o choking up:

In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder
that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem
unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that
resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are
eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless13
and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our
destiny. (Grateful in Any Circumstances) Uchdorf


I am obsessed. We are not made for endings. In the Because of Him
video it says there is no such thing as the end because of Him. I know
that that is true. That because of our Savior's love for us, death is
not the end, and sin isn't the end either. We are never too far gone
for our Savior's eternal and infinite Atonement to reach us and clean
us. I know that He lives.


I love you all so so so so so much :)
Have a good week
Love,
Sister Burton :)